Anna and the Apocalypse

Directed by John McPhail

(R)

2

A teenager sings, dances, and slays zombies.

Hunt rocks the cafeteria.

Heartfelt when it needs to be and “bloody in the best ways,” the first-ever Christmastime zombie musical is “the perfect antidote to sickly sweet holiday fare,” said Katie Walsh in the Los Angeles Times. In a small Scottish town stricken overnight by a zombie virus, a teenager discovers on the way to school one December morning that she and a handful of friends will have to fight through hordes of undead flesh eaters to reunite with their loved ones. “Along the way, love triangles are tangled and futures are reckoned with,” all while star Ella Hunt and the rest of the cast are singing, dancing, and bludgeoning zombies. Though it aims to mock both teen-angst dramas and Disney-fied teen musicals, the film “at times comes closer to a facsimile than a parody,” said April Wolfe in AVClub.com. But when it’s funny, it’s hilarious, and every frame of the movie feels expertly realized. Crucially, “it works as a horror film,” which gives the overlay of comedy real snap, said Richard Whittaker in The Austin Chronicle. Ultimately, Anna and the Apocalypse is “like biting into a candy cane and getting jabbed by those sharp, sugary shards.” ■